ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 14, 1996 TAG: 9605140009
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: LETTERS
THIS PAST fall was my first time to go hunting, and I was really counting on going turkey hunting this spring also. But when the season rolled around, I didn't because I just didn't feel safe.
It's too dangerous out there. You could be hunting right beside someone and not know it until it's too late. Hunters sit in the bushes completely camouflaged so they can blend in, and then they start calling turkeys. They sound exactly like one. Then a flock of turkeys lands right in front of the bushes. You don't know whether people are in the bushes because the people are camouflaged and they sound like a turkey. Then bam - you've hit a hunter!
When I first thought about whose fault it was, I decided it would have been the other hunter's. But after thinking a little more, I realized that it wasn't.
There is no law in Virginia that says a turkey hunter has to wear blaze orange while hunting, but I think there should be. Asking other hunters why it's not required, I heard that many hunters think that it's impossible to kill a turkey if the hunter is wearing blaze orange. They think if you wear it, the turkey will see you before you see the turkey.
My dad was deer hunting in a tree stand this past fall when a flock of turkeys flew in and landed around his tree. He blew on his deer horn and moved around in the tree, but they wouldn't fly away. They stayed there until he left the woods. He had plenty of time to shoot them had it been turkey season. He was wearing a blaze orange jacket and cap. Now you can't convince me turkeys are scared of blaze orange.
Pass a law requiring turkey hunters to wear blaze orange. It's just too unsafe without such a law.
WESLEY BRUBAKER
ROCKY MOUNT
Poor children also need treats
IN RESPONSE to Steve Doyle's April 18 letter to the editor, ``Helping to (junk) feed the hungry'':
As a young widowed mother of six children 40 years ago, I had no so-called help of any kind from the government. If I had had the gift of his tax dollars to help pay for food stamps for my children, you can bet they would have had more treats and junk food more often than the once-a-month bag of chips and Kool-Aid. Even poor kids crave and beg for junk food!
My hat is off to these mothers for braving the stares and humiliation to buy for their family the food they crave and, yes, even need!
I wonder if Doyle has ever had to deny his children (if any) some small snack because he couldn't afford it. He and others should not be so quick to judge these people until, God forbid, they walk in their shoes.
BETTY E. FERNATT
ROANOKE
Flexible day-care programs needed
I READ your Opinion page daily just to see what's on people's minds. On occasion, I'll see something about child care, but not often enough to have something done about the child-care system.
Where I live, day-care facilites charge anywhere from $35 to $70 a week to keep a child. Some give discounts for more than one child. None will keep a child who isn't potty-trained. Some will pick up your child from school, but only one will take your child to and from school (for a charge).
When I put my child in day care, I wanted to drop her off five minutes early because I work across town. I was told no. They said they don't even unlock the doors until 6:30 a.m. I have to be at work by 7 a.m. What are parents supposed to do?
They don't take into account how much you make. Nor do they care if you have to stay home with a sick child because day-care facilities can't take a chance on other children getting sick. They still expect their $50 to "hold the child's spot" in the program. I don't know about other places, but I don't get paid if I don't work.
I feel as though something could be done about day-care facilities' opening earlier and charging according to your pay.
PENNY S. CLYBURN
VINTON
Words set off an emotional response
IN RESPONSE to Gary C. Walker's April 28 letter to the editor (``What's PC now may be offensive later'') concerning our state song, ``Carry Me Back to Old Virginia'':
He has to be a most intelligent person to do research and find that only a very few black people resent being called ``darkies.'' As a black woman, I understand what he means.
My son, a sergeant in the Army, almost had a serious problem when he and a white sergeant exchanged words. I wasn't told what was said other than my son called him a cracker. My son was told he showed disrespect.
Intelligent people know saltines are called crackers. We eat them with peanut butter. I think the sergeant is making too much about food.
I'm sending Walker's letter to my son. Perhaps he'll show it to the other sergeant and tell him how people in the Roanoke Valley think.
MARY LEAR
ROANOKE
LENGTH: Medium: 95 linesby CNB